Farm Bill Failure Could Return Policy to the 1940s | Business ...
Frankfort, KY ? It?s more or less official; a new farm bill will not go to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote before the existing bill expires on Sept. 30.
While no surprise, this comes much to the dismay of farmers and agriculture organizations across the country and despite numerous efforts by a host of supportive legislators and ag leaders to encourage a vote.
A rally organized by the Farm Bill Now Coalition was held at the Capitol before the Sept. 21 recess with farmers and ranchers calling for Congress to take action sooner rather than later.
American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman emceed the rally and said, ?Perhaps never in the history of farm legislation have so many diverse farmer and rancher voices joined together for such a common call for action on a farm bill. All of us gathered here also share one resounding and common message, Congress, for our farm and ranch families, their communities and our nation: pass the farm bill, now.?
The Senate passed a bill last June in a rather speedy and somewhat bipartisan manner as did the House Agriculture Committee soon after. But that proved to be the end of the road for the bill at least until the November elections are over and a lame-duck Congress convenes.
Meanwhile, as the political ball is tossed back and forth, failure to pass a bill could have some negative effects if legislation is not realized by the first of the year.
Generally speaking a farm bill covers commodity programs on a crop/marketing-year basis which means crops grown in 2012 and marketed in 2013 would not be affected with the expiration of the bill. However, if legislation is not passed by the end of the year, the possibility of something known as ?permanent law? taking affect becomes a real concern.
According to information from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), ?Permanent law primarily refers to the Agriculture Adjustment Act of 1938 and the Agricultural Act of 1949. If no action is taken on a new farm bill by December 31, 2012, some permanent law policies for the farm commodity programs would resume.?
And those policies would resume under guidelines set more than 70 years ago in some instances. The dairy industry would be the first to feel the effects of the expiration. The CRS reports that, ?beginning September 1, 2012, the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program is administered at reduced coverage levels. Specifically, the MILC feed cost adjuster is lowered from 45 percent of the difference between the target price and actual price to 34 percent of this difference. Additionally, the MILC volume cap is lowered from 2.985 million pounds to 2.4 million pounds per dairy farmer.?
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